Effective July 1, 2024, the Virginia Railway Express (VRE) will update its fare structure for the first time in five years, alongside a new policy benefiting children. Passengers aged 18 and under will travel for free when accompanied by a paying adult.

Adult fares will see a five percent increase. For example, travelers from Spotsylvania Station to Union Station in Washington, D.C., will pay $0.65 more for single-ride tickets and $18 more for monthly passes.

Additionally, VRE’s fiscal year 2025 budget introduces a flat $5 fare for trips within and between zones 1 (Union Station and L’Enfant), 2 (Crystal City and Alexandria), and 3 (Franconia-Springfield and Backlick Road).

The policy for free youth travel includes specific requirements: accompanied children aged 18 and under do not need identification. Children aged 11-18 traveling alone must have a valid school, state, or VRE Reduced Fare ID, which can be obtained online. Children under 10 must travel with a paying adult.

VRE operates two lines—Manassas and Fredericksburg—connecting Central and Northern Virginia with Washington, D.C., serving 19 stations, including key stops like L’Enfant and Union Station. For more information on fares and schedules, visit www.vre.org.

Transurban has announced the 95/395 Express Lanes will have a revised reversal schedule on Thursday, July 4, 2024 to accommodate travelers attending the Independence Day fireworks display.

The lanes will be open northbound all day until 7 p.m. when reversal begins. The Lanes are expected to open southbound by 8:30 p.m.

The National Park Service has announced Independence Day activities will begin at 11:45 a.m. and continue throughout the day, culminating in the annual "Fireworks on the National Mall" program. Fireworks are scheduled for 9:09-9:27 p.m.  

By Morgan Sweeney

(The Center Square) — Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., joined Rep. Mike Carey, R-Ohio, to introduce a bill to waive passport fees for families visiting a service member injured overseas.

“The last thing military families need is added stress and expense when going to visit their loved one in a time of illness or injury,” Carey said in a statement.

Passport fees are already waived for families of American military personnel who have to attend an overseas funeral or memorial service or visit an overseas grave. Spanberger and Carey felt the fees should also be waived for injured service members who have not been medically cleared for travel, as they may be in critical condition, and time is of the essence for them and their families.

“When a parent, spouse, or sibling receives the dreaded phone call that their loved one has been injured in combat, that family member should not have to worry about the extra cost of obtaining a passport to be by their side. Our nation’s service members — and their families — deserve our highest standard of care and support for their immense sacrifice,” Spanberger said in a statement.

Spanberger did not seek reelection in the upcoming congressional general election, as she declared in November that she intends to run for governor.

Virginia’s Department of Health (VDH) has set up an outbreak investigation website documenting the outbreak of Shiga toxin-inducing Escherichia coli (E. coli) infections in Lake Anna swimmers. 25 cases have been confirmed, and the only known common factor is swimming in the lake on Memorial Day weekend.

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George Mason University’s Patriot Pitch Competition awarded its top prize in the General Entrepreneurship Track to Zachary Suh, a 19-year-old freshman from Ashburn studying marketing.

Suh’s venture, ElderlyEats, aims to provide senior citizens with nutritious and culturally familiar meal plans.

“ElderlyEats is basically a meal plan company that’s catered to the specific needs of the elderly’s dietary nutrition,” said Suh. “We have dietitians on our team that vet our meals carefully to the nutrition of elders.”

Unlike popular meal kit services like HelloFresh and Blue Apron, ElderlyEats focuses on creating meals for seniors with conditions such as dysphagia and diabetes. His personal experience inspired Suh with his grandmother, who struggled to find suitable meals due to Alzheimer’s and dysphagia. “We ordered these dishes, but she couldn’t actually eat them. So we had to almost like puree it up for her,” he explained.

The company emphasizes traditional dietary ingredients to provide familiar flavors, addressing a gap left by mainstream meal services that cater to younger demographics. “We’re focusing on developing these menu items that are just pureed completely. We’re looking at rice porridges, soups, stuff like that,” said Suh. “A big thing about these major meal plans is that they’re focusing on a very young demographic, so their meals are very catered to, you know, kind of trendy cultural foods.”

Suh’s journey into entrepreneurship was influenced by his brother, a successful entrepreneur who received investment from Y Combinator. “My brother definitely influenced that. I actually competed with him at UVA when I was a high schooler in another entrepreneurship competition, and that kind of exposed me to it,” Suh said.

Despite the challenges, Suh is committed to growing his business and hopes to continue in the field of entrepreneurship, potentially opening a restaurant in the future. “If I was able to successfully exit my company, then I’d probably open up a restaurant. But I think I’ll definitely stay in the world of entrepreneurship,” he stated.

Suh encouraged aspiring entrepreneurs to pursue their passion and start small businesses. “Whatever you’re passionate in, that’s what you’re going to put the most hours in and the most work in,” he said. “You just got to start. You can’t just keep saying you’re going to do something. Break your big goal into smaller plans and just execute through that.”

As a freshman, Suh has made significant strides with ElderlyEats and looks forward to further developing his venture while completing his studies at George Mason University. “I really have no idea right now where I see myself in the next five years,” Suh admitted. “But I’m just going to keep working on ElderlyEats and see where it takes me.”

 

Republican Derrick Anderson emerged as the winner of the June 18, 2024, Republican Primary for Virignia’s 7th Congressional District.

The district includes eastern Prince William County, Stafford, and Spostylvania counties, and Fredericksburg.

Anderson secured 16,203 votes, accounting for 45.25% of the total votes cast. He will face Democrat Eugene Vindman in the upcoming November 2024 General Election.

The primary race saw Anderson leading comfortably among his competitors. His closest rival, Cameron Hamilton, garnered 13,333 votes, representing 37.23% of the electorate, which was not enough to close the gap with Anderson. Jon Myers came in third with 4,585 votes, capturing 12.80% of the total vote. The remaining candidates, John Prabhudoss, Maria Martin, and Terris Todd, received significantly fewer votes, with each securing less than 3% of the total.

Our country is the weakest it has been since the event that drove me to run for Congress: the botched withdrawal in Afghanistan. I lost five of my guys, including Green Berets, in Afghanistan, and I was disgusted by the weakness portrayed by the United States during the chaotic withdrawal that saw 20 years of progress and sacrifice wasted in the blink of an eye,” Andesron said in his election night speech on June 18. “We will secure our border to make sure our communities are safe again, our nation is secure, and to guarantee that those who immigrated here legally still have access to the American dream they came here for. We will make living more affordable. It’s time Washington be reminded that their policies are impacting each of us more than they try to understand, and it starts right in our pocket books, wallets, and at our kitchen tables. That ends today.”

Anderson made a bid for the nomination in 2022, but lost to Yesli Vega.Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D) has held the the 7th District congressional seat since 2018. She’s not seeking re-election to Congress but is running for Virginia Governor in 2025.

Pivoting to the General Election, Anderson tells us he’ll be knocking doors in Prince William County tomorrow, June 22, 2024.

Vindman, of Dale City, ran a campaign solely to oppose Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for President. He and his twin brother Alexander Vindman were key figures in Trump’s first impeachment in 2020.

Vindman cruised to victory over a sea of Democrat candidates vying for the nomination, winning nearly 50% of the vote in the district. He out raised them, too, raking in more than $5 million, mainly from out-of-state liberal donors who oppose Trump.

The Virginia Railway Express (VRE) and Maryland Area Regional Commuter (MARC) services are set to strengthen their collaboration. The VRE Operations Board is expected to vote on Friday, June 21, to restore an agreement that allows VRE riders to board MARC trains and vice versa. This move has been speculated as a step toward providing non-stop service between Maryland and Virginia.

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Virginia’s Department of Health (VDH) has confirmed 20 known cases of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (E. coli) infections in patients who swam at Lake Anna over Memorial Day weekend. Deputy Director Katherine McCombs said swimming at the lake is the only known connection between the patients.

Randal Brown, of Augusta County, near Charlottesville, said his family visited the lake on May 25 and May 26. Everyone went swimming and ate the same food. His son Bentley, who just turned eight, was the only one to get sick. The family went to the Augusta Health ER on May 30 when Bentley had severe stomach pain.

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By Casey Harper

(The Center Square) – Small businesses are citing the highest levels of uncertainty since the COVID-19 pandemic, a concerning economic indicator.

The National Federation of Independent Businesses released the survey of small businesses, which found that small business uncertainty spiked last month.

NFIB keeps an “Uncertainty Index” which spiked 9 percentage points last month, hitting the highest level since November of 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic was raging and businesses were shutting down across the country.

“The small business sector is responsible for the production of over 40% of GDP and employment, a crucial portion of the economy,” NFIB Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg said in a statement. “But for 29 consecutive months, small business owners have expressed historically low optimism and their views about future business conditions are at the worst levels seen in 50 years. Small business owners need relief as inflation has not eased much on Main Street.”

Meanwhile, 22% of small businesses cited inflation as the biggest concern operating their business. Inflation has remained stubbornly elevated this year, although lower than the record pace earlier in President Joe Biden’s term.

“Price hikes were the most frequent in the retail (55% higher, 6% lower), finance (50% higher, 3% lower), construction (42% higher, 9% lower), manufacturing (42% higher, 12% lower), and services (37% higher, 6% lower) sectors,” NFIB said in its report. “Seasonally adjusted, a net 28% plan price hikes in May.”